Baggage Fiasco Causes Chaos At Check-In | Bristol Airport S1 E1 | Our Stories

[Music] bristol airport at the start of yet another busy day it's six o'clock in the morning and flight crews get ready to fly thousands of people to more than 70 destinations right across europe bristol is home to both scheduled and charter airlines household aviation names like british airways easyjet britannia and air 2000 [Music] this morning britannia's boeing 757 is on stand for one of its busiest days of the year it's due to fly no less than four round-trip flights in 24 hours for the crew there's at least half an hour's preparation before the first passengers get on board for this flight to mahon in minorca outside the day's first load of fuel some 12 tons of aviation kerosene is being loaded into the jets tanks in the check-in hall thousands of passengers are lined up for their flights but today they're having to be more patient than usual since the whole operation has come to an abrupt halt although the passengers themselves can check in their baggage cannot and the queues are getting longer and longer we had the fire alarms that for some reason they went off continuously the fire alarms are linked with the baggage system and the check-in system so as soon as the alarms go off everything stops and that happened continually this morning uh which held everything up we couldn't get the bags out to the aircraft um when we did we then had problems getting passengers through uh and everyone wanted to go at once so there was all sorts of problems this morning well this is definitely probably the busiest saturday we've had so far for holiday traffic the bag is belt um failures have have caused us a great deal of problems this morning what our task now for the rest of the day is to try and recover some of that time and we have five base aircraft here in bristol and what we look at is to see if we can get one of our spare aircraft and to bristol to um to smooth things out to smooth the operation out and hopefully alleviate some of the delays we do have 20 minute turnarounds of our aircraft um what we'll do today because we are running behind schedule is is our flight deck will be pushing the aircraft they will be in a sense speeding speeding along the skyways there's such a buzz to this to this whole life you know aviation is is it's a very fun life it's very high stress there's a lot of you know this heavy workload but it's the whole people interaction side of things for passengers and staff alike it's a frustrating time the departure lounge is full and the planes are waiting but without the baggage no one is going anywhere there's nothing else to do but sit and wait and even snooze the time away [Music] out on the apron pilots with busy schedules to keep are anxious to get things moving [Music] [Applause] him back at check-in passengers and their baggage start moving again but the hold-ups have lasted nearly an hour with the log jam finally clearing the first flights can last year four million passengers use bristol international making it the fourth busiest airport in the country outside london on a typical day airline passengers will check in over 6 000 bags cases and other pieces of luggage on board britannia zero zero six alpha preparations for departure are well underway with a system of checks on over one thousand pieces of equipment and fight controls a procedure that's carried out every time the aircraft is about to take off today those checks reveal a small but what for the airline will turn out to be a very significant problem outside the last of the 12 tons of fuel is still being loaded but for the moment this aircraft is going to remain firmly on the ground we've got a strip of lights that run along the floor which direct people to exits it's a strip of lights that we think will never ever use so long as the aircraft flies but they've got to be there the last eight feet of these lights are not working so we've got to get them repaired it's a requirement for the civil aviation authority it's part of the safety and equipment on board and we have to have it people get worried they think every technical bolt is an engine serious problem with an engine or something serious with wings it's not the case it could be something as simple as eight feet of lighting that's not working britannia have sent to their base at cardiff for a spare part to cure the fault but airport security at bristol won't allow the engineer in because he doesn't have the right pass [Music] leans captain gaurt on a vain search for his engineer and finally having to go to the security gate himself to retrieve the part it's literally a little transformer that's uh that's packed up on us we'll change the transformer unfortunately we've got to get one brought in it's taking time and it's here we're replacing it and we'll be on our way very shortly spare part safely in hand captain gort arrives back at the aircraft and wastes no time in getting it to where it's needed [Music] he's needed back on the flight deck since by now flight 006 is running over two hours late in a schedule which leaves little or no time for any hold ups [Music] meanwhile across the tarmac from britannia the my travel plane scheduled to fly to palma in majorca has its own share of problems the baggage delay means that although the captain has his full load of passengers he only has half their cases that leaves him with the difficult decision of whether to take off or wait for the rest of the luggage and a possible major delay but in times of crisis airlines can help each other and today it's air 2000 who come to my travels aid one of their flights is going to the same destination just 20 minutes behind and may be able to take the 17 missing cases [Music] it's all down to the air 2000 captain who with the expert help of the service air ground crew must work out the extra loading and whether or not he can safely take the extra weight on board it all requires careful checks and rechecks but in the end it's going to work and the extra cases are loaded into the air 2000 hold but there's no reprieve for britannia the electrical problem is still taking time to be sorted out but my travel can get on its way knowing that barring last minute hiccups the missing baggage will be just a matter of minutes behind when they get to their destination at last flights are getting underway and the airlines are starting to claw back the time they've lost on a typical day there are 150 aircraft movements through the airport an average of one takeoff or landing every few minutes the airport is one of the largest businesses in the region employing over two thousand people that contributes an estimated 40 million pounds to the local economy each year and the airport itself plans to spend 100 million pounds over the next 10 years to boost its services and facilities its target is a potential 13 million extra passengers in just over 25 years time two and a half hours after it was due to leave britannia flight by006 to mahon is finally preparing to get underway [Music] watching the passengers board is a major relief for station manager steve mckay whose only headache now will be to see just how the delays to subsequent flights can be eased he's only too aware that by the time his aircraft is finally ready to move the passengers for its next flight of the day by223 to malaga will already be arriving and checking in at the airport the final moments of departure are here and the pushback of the aircraft can at last get underway that just leaves steve mckay to discuss his options with britannia's main base back at luke today we've taken some delays along with several other airlines because of lots of different problems so what i'm looking at now is how do we best cut that delay to the absolute minimum so i'm sitting here and i'm looking at let's prepare people for for the next rotation make sure that everything's ready we've got the crew here now and i'll be out there at the aircraft side driving that along with the dispatcher to make sure that we get it cut to an absolute minimum [Music] britannia flight by006 has returned from an orca but the delay has only been reduced by a matter of minutes it's going to take some seriously hard work and a bit of luck to cut that down even further as 006 taxes slowly onto its stand literally dozens of people are waiting in the wings the aircraft must be unloaded loaded refueled checked and rechecked before the next set of passengers can be boarded it's an operation where timing knowledge and teamwork are extremely important [Music] the passengers seem to have taken the delay in their stride no one's complaining about arriving back at bristol a few hours later [Music] and for steve mckay it's going to be an anxious time even before the returning passengers have all left the plane the next crew is already arriving [Music] they're due to take the plane to malaga under its new flight number by223 alpha right the important thing is to make sure that we get everybody off and back on again as fast as possible our safety is absolutely essential so we're watching to make sure that all the essential checks are being done but with as much speed as we possibly can i'm hopeful we'll get it turned around in 45 minutes around about that we're nearly there we've got virtually everyone off and the new crew are just getting on now so it's taken six minutes so far that's not bad the hoped for 45 minutes will cut the turnaround time down by about half an hour today though any saving is going to be worthwhile but saving time doesn't mean that any corners can be cut especially where safety is concerned captain pete warren carries out his normal outside check of the aircraft it's detailed and certainly never hurried wheels wings flaps and engines all come under his expert eye as one of britannia's training captains pete warren has flown more than 12 000 hours and has been with britannia for 17 years but for every fight the routine is exactly the same and flying an 80 ton boeing 757 with over 200 passengers is very different from his early years as a pilot flying buccaneers and f-111 jets in the royal air force but whether it's the raf or a commercial airline it's still very much a team affair the captain still relies on dozens of other people to carry out their specialist roles but it is not just pilots and ground crew who have a major part in the turnaround the aircraft must also be cleaned and restocked while up in the cockpit pete and his first officer run through the same exhausting list of pre-flight checks [Music] [Music] and all the while eyes remain firmly on the clock as it ticks away the minutes all right i'm really quite pleased actually with the way things are going the aircraft's been here oh 18 minutes now and just looking at it it's been cleaned virtually just finishing off fuel is going on the bags are all off the new bikes have arrived uh we're doing quite well well in terms of the delay we now have an atc slot which is at 15.55 so we need to go in the next 30 minutes um and then crucially we need to get the aircraft cleaned and the security checks carried out which is the cabin manager will make sure are completed correctly and then the agent is actually responsible for the turnaround uh to make sure that all the services are provided correctly and on time all we can really do is carry out our checks here and make sure that we're ready to go once the aircraft cleaning and um servicing is complete and the passengers are on board so that we we therefore carry that check such that as soon as we're told the passengers are on board we can close up and go immediately and that's what we're trying to do now is to make sure that the front end of the aircraft is ready to go the appropriate time [Music] [Applause] sheets okay [Music] so [Music] [Music] uh about 28 minutes we've been on the ground now uh and i've just got the thumbs up from the dispatcher they're ready for passengers we're getting our disabled passengers on now should take about another 15 minutes we're doing okay with things going well steve is looking a much more relaxed man but still keeps a keen eye out for any potential problems such as mobile phones which are forbidden on the tarmac because of all the aviation fuel around as well as on board the aircraft can you switch your phone off please you're not using it that's great because we're fueling here thank you you had this to be off no yeah okay thank you all right just as you were moving forward no problem [Music] trying to make their slot don't they oh yeah we're all right for time we've got another 15 minutes before the slot it's all right we won't go without you all right have a lovely time girls bye [Music] and with the final passengers on board it's time for pushback which steve is only too keen to get going pushing 90 tons of aircraft passengers and fuel with a 10-ton tractor also takes a lot of skill keeping the combined weights in a straight line is harder than it looks with the aircraft almost on its way for the second flight of the day how successful have the turnaround team been well we did not a bad job i think we could have made maybe been about 10 minutes earlier but there was a very large piece of cargo inbound that slowed us up which made the loading a little bit slow but it's taken just under 50 minutes so it's not too bad [Music] so 20 vital minutes have been saved and with the boeing 757 now safely on its way there's a word of thanks for the ground crew you see the effort you put over sorry i really do thank you that's okay because we've done quite a good job quite a good job with that one i mean it will say no well done guys thank you all right it's now all in the hands of pete warren and his crew pete decides to use runway zero nine which he knows will save him a turn over the bristol channel and some vital minutes at around 140 miles an hour the boeing lifts clear of the runway as it turned out the crew skill cut another half an hour from the delay by the time by2 got back to bristol next week at bristol airport it's training time for some visiting firemen [Applause] and claire's solo effort as she takes her first steps towards becoming a pilot [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Our Stories

Views: 242,259

Keywords: Our Stories, Documentary, Observational Documentary, Real Stories, Full Episode, Full Length Episodes, Full Documentary, Fly On The Wall, Yearbook, Real Life, Documentaries, Real Lives, Behind The Scenes, bristol airport, airport, airline, easyjet, airline documentary, airport documentary, behind the scenes airport, behind the scenes airline, baggage control, airplane, airplane documentary, cabin crew, airport check-in, international airport

Id: zvxv62R4N0s

Length: 21min 57sec (1317 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 04 2022